I used to save them, but now I toss 'em.
I do scrapbook, so if I can work keepsakes in I do.
The only box of stuff I have like this is a small photo storage box of momentos from when we lost our first baby. I rarely look at it (once a year maybe) but I could never throw that out.
Annette

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Okay, so I guess I'm just too sentimental. But even a really sweet card that a friend wrote would get tossed? I guess the question is whether I would ever go back and read it again.

Is the card to you or your child? Could you put it in a scrapbook?
Annette

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Well, despite having 2 kids I am really good at keeping up on the photo albums. If they receive a card, stickers, anything like that, it goes in the album. I use the kind with the sticky pages and not the photo pockets.

Ticket stubs - I don't save unless they are very sentimental, and then I just add them to the box on my dresser that holds my cards and letters.

Every few months, I go through the cards and letters. Nearly all of them get saved, but some I decide to toss after all. Some cards - like Christmas cards - I cut up and use the designs for new cards. I keep the cut-outs with my craft supplies and dig through them when I want to make a card.

I tend to keep those things too. In my filing cabinet I have folders labeled with just the year. I drop cards (only with meaningful notes, not just signed ones), letters, and other 'memorable' things in there when they pile up on my desk.

For Christmas card pics, school pics and holiday letters, I save those in a cheap photo album for the kids to look at. They pile up and a couple times a year I spend 10 mins sticking them in the album (magnetic page ones).

Count me in on the "toss" side. I used to keep those things and realized that it's very freeing to throw them out. Unless it's something very important, the paper clutter will weigh you down.

With that said, if you're dead set on keeping things - try a shoebox or other smallish container as a holding spot until you get around to "scrapbooking" the items and limit yourself to THAT container. Limiting the space you're willing to give to mementos will force you to choose whether it's really important or actually put them in a scrapbook - which you may never do otherwise.

I recycle nearly all greeting cards and ticket stubs, etc. However, a nice note from someone I love I will usually keep. I have a vintage suitcase I just toss the stuff into. I almost never look it right now because I am busy running after a toddler and homeschooling a 6 year old. However, as I get older I appreciate some of the older items more. Sometimes letters and notes are a tangible presence of someone I have have lost touch with or who has died. I also throw in my journals when they are full. I tried scrapbooking but it doesn't really work for me right now. It is important to go through items occasionally and make sure they still have value to you. Otherwise they are just clutter.

Be careful with what you put in the sticky page albums, most are not made of photo safe paper,glue so overtime they will yellow and crack. When dh & I started dating everything went into one of those, it's been 19 years and they are wrecked!

I'd say, keep any note that really is personal and sweet, toss all the more general cards. Into the circular file for generic thank you notes ("Thank you for the lovely widget. We'll think of you every time we bring it out of deep storage to dust it,") holiday cards that bear nothing except a signature, ticket stubs (unless it was truely once-in-a-lifetime, like seeing your niece in a Broadway play). Yes, you'll end up saving a few items - but few enough that they won't feel like clutter anymore.

I cringe every time my mother hands me another batch of Valentine's Day cards for my daughters and asks me pointedly if I'm saving all their cards. Yeah, like I really want to burden them with all that clutter in 20 years...

I put greeting cards on display for a few months on a windowsil or clear shelf...after a few months, they get tossed. The cards my kids make me by hand get displayed on the wall for about a year before I toss them. I save about 1 written item and one piece of artwork per child per year- enough for sentimental journeys, but not huge volumes of clutter.

I have a shoebox that I put all that kind of stuff into and once it's full I HAVE to go through it. At that point I'm usually able to throw away a good portion of it without feeling too bad.

For stuff that I want to keep and scrapbook I just file those things in with the pictures that they correspond with. MOst times I find that I throw away more stuff as I'm arranging my pages because really, sometimes less is more!

Also, I love using special inserts or pockets in my scrapbook where I can put several cards etc, with out having to mount each one. Saves time and space.

A technique I really like, and have just found, is to tuck little things like that into my photo albums. I do a good job keeping my photo albums up-to-date, and chronologically complete. So sometimes I'll just tuck in a letter or card from whoever behind a photo in the album, in the correct time frame.

Less is more. One kind note from a friend, that will always remind you, "hey, my friend wrote me this particular card I have saved, and heck, that reminds me of a bunch of lovely cards that she had sent me over the years" may be more powerful than a shoebox full of cards.

For letters and cards - gee I can't remember the last time I got an actual LETTER in the mail! Cards, I keep the ones from DH only. Others have got to be REALLY special to keep. I cut up the Xmas ones for gift tags. Others get used for arts and crafts.

I have a small Rubbermaid box that is my "shoebox of life". I toss special things in there, but also go through it once in a while. I went through it when we moved last year and found stuff that actually I COULD toss. It just wasn't special anymore after 15 or 20 years. I also limit myself to this one box.